This week was the biggest of the training block so far, with the plan calling for a total of approximately hundred kilometres of mostly easy running during the week, with the weekend runs making up about half of the total volume. Because I’ve never done such high running volume in the past, I approached the week with some positive nervous energy.

It turned out to be easy (my Garmin’s judgment notwithstanding). The combination of easy running and strength training has clearly worked its magic in the previous weeks, making it comfortable for me to run 100 kilometres in a week. In the past years, I’ve felt much more sore doing half of the volume.

I also feel that the muscular endurance focus has increased my resilience to injury. For example, during my Saturday long run, I landed awkwardly on some rocks and sensed some pain on my knee. The pain disappeared during the run but showed up again in the evening. Previously, I would’ve started considering skipping the following day’s run. This time, I was confident that the pain would disappear once I’d warm up. This is exactly what happened and the pain has stayed away ever since.